Duncan McClure was the poster child for Illini Central basketball Friday afternoon as he led the Cougars past Nokomis 52-38 in the second semifinal game of the Class 1A state finals at Carver Arena.

Top-ranked Illini Central will face upstart Madison this afternoon in the championship game. Madison edged past Lanark Eastland 51-50 in the first semifinal to advance.

Illini Central-Nokomis

The Cougars trailed 6-4 when McClure scored his first points of the game. It started a run that put the game away early.

McClure’s hoop came with 3:35 left in the first quarter. These were the first points of what became a 27-10 surge that closed out the half and gave the Cougars a 3-15 halftime advantage.

Although he had 8 points and 6 rebounds in the first half, McClure showed his ability to dominate in the third quarter. He scored all 12 points for Illini Central in the period, and did so in a variety of ways.

McClure made four free throws, he scored in the low post and he even beat the defense down the floor for a fastbreak layup off a long pass from Jared Entwistle.

The 6-foot-4 senior pivot finished the game with 25 points and 12 rebounds.

“Duncan McClure was just huge inside,” Illini Central head coach John Giesler said. “That was something we thought we could take advantage of and Duncan didn’t let us down.”

Nokomis scored just two points in nearly a full quarter’s worth of play in the first half. The Redskins took their only lead of the day with 5:08 to go in the first period, and then managed just a Devon Wright field goal until Austin Leigh scored with 5:37 left in the half.

Meanwhile, the IC defense and an opportunistic offense guided the Cougars to a 19-point second quarter.

“They had that little 3-minute spurt where Entwistle comes in and buries a 3 off an inbound, comes down and buries another one (and) they open it up to six, eight points,” Nokomis head coach Steve Kimbro said. “We tried to hold our own but we had a stretch of three, four possessions in a row where we come down and turn the ball over.”

The finish to the first game was very much like the beginning. Leads changed and neither side could lasso momentum to put the other team away.

Page 2 of 3 - Madison built a six-point lead in the first quarter, but trailed when the period ended. Eastland was up by five points midway through the second frame but had to settle for a 24-24 tie at intermission.

And neither team was able to hold a lead of more than one possession until Eastland 45-41 with 2:14 left in the game.

Tyvon Powers buried a 3-pointer to get Madison to within one with two minutes to go, and then Marquis Borney scored 25 seconds later to knot the game at 46-46.

The stage was set for a wild finish.

Three lead changes took place in the final 45 seconds. The first was when Deontay Starnes converted a three-point play to put the Trojans up 49-48.

Ty Hartman scored for the Cougars as Eastland grabbed its final lead at 50-49 with 26 seconds on the clock.

Madison rushed down for a quick shot, but Borney’s effort was off the mark. Teammate Carvel Dixon was in the right spot for the offensive board. He passed to Starnes, who was fouled on his shot attempt with 8.3 seconds left.

Starnes, who had missed his first five free throw attempts before his three-point play toss, upped his string of makes to three by sinking both shots and giving the Trojans a 51-50 edge.

Eastland’s final hopes were dashed when Dalton Shaner turned the ball over in the lane with a second left.

“We knew 23 (Dalton Shaner) was going to do something,” Madison head coach Jaime Cotto said. “We took Johnny (Meitzenheimer) out we put Quincy (Ware) in. I wanted Buck (DiJon Bryant) up top because (Shaner) was going to try to shoot it. Buck’s long and we went a little bigger and then the two brothers at top just caused a lot of pressure and he turned it over.”

It was a tough setback for Eastland head coach Tony Dunlap to take.

“It’s no fin losing,” he said.

“Each and every athlete that was on the floor, each and every athlete that was on the bench, each and every coach that was on the staff gave it their best effort,” he added. “We just didn’t execute and do the little things right.”